North West McKenzie Friends is a very small family run business. We try to offer as much free advice as possible to ensure that parents are able to access helpful information to help them to represent themselves in court. You will find sensible advice for working with the other parent as well as suggestions for handling your relationships with your children following a breakup as the primary focus of the court system are the children.
A McKenzie Friend is someone who you can ask to help you with your Family Court Issues. They are not a qualified solicitor and so there are some things that they cannot do. You are also able to self represent yourself in court as a Litigant in Person (LIP) and most people find that they do not need a solicitor at all. All you need is the knowledge of the court process, some tips on filling in forms and advice on how to handle your case. If you find that the process is overwhelming, then we are happy to step in to help you.
A McKenzie Friend CANNOT:
• File paperwork on your behalf at the court or sign court documents
• Address the court or examine witnesses. In some exceptional circumstances, a Mckenzie friend can be granted “rights of audience” which would then give the McKenzie Friend the ability to act for the litigant and to address the court, but this is not granted very often.
A McKenzie Friend CAN:
• Provide moral support for the LIP
• Take notes
• Help with case papers
• Advise on:
- points of law or procedure
- issues that the litigant may wish to raise in court
- questions the litigant may wish to ask witnesses
You can read our articles to see if the information that you’re looking for is on this site. We are adding articles all the time and do our best to ensure that everything that we post is accurate and up to date. Check out the “Articles” tab in the menu at the top of this page.
If you have any questions, you can contact us at any time. We will do our best to email you back and answer any questions that you may have.
We also offer some services that require payment. This is because these tasks are fairly time consuming and so we simply require a fair reimbursement for our time. We do not charge anywhere near as much as a solicitor would charge you and our fees are transparent and published here on our website. Sometimes, there may be additional fees involved, especially if your case is particularly complex, but we will let you know about this first so you can tell us how you wish to proceed.
Although North West McKenzie Friends is a Lancashire based service, we are able to help anyone in England who may need family law advice. There are no rules about where your McKenzie friend should be located and so we would be able to advise or help you with your paperwork whether you live in Preston or Southampton.
If you would like to know more about our service, you are welcome to contact us here.
